Craftsman factory in Texas shows challenges of reshoring manufacturing

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The unsuccessful effort to launch a highly-automated factory for Craftsman tools in the U.S. underscores the challenges American businesses face in bringing manufacturing back from overseas.

Craftsman, the world’s largest tool brand, owned by Stanley Black & Decker, initially announced in 2019 that it would build a $90 million facility employing up to 500 workers in Fort Worth, Texas. The effort was viewed as an opportunity to showcase Craftsman products being «Made in the U.S.A.» with cutting-edge manufacturing technologies to make the automated factory competitive with overseas facilities that use more manual processes. 

The factory was slated to be in production 18 months after the groundbreaking. However, the pandemic and supply chain challenges threw those plans into disarray, and deficiencies with the technology intended to help automate its manufacturing processes prevented the plant from ever reaching its full potential. In March 2023, Stanley announced that the Craftsman plant in Fort Worth would be shuttered.

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Craftsman shuttered its Forth Worth manufacturing plant amid a cost-cutting push earlier this year after the facility struggled with technical issues and pandemic-related supply chain problems. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)

A spokesperson for Stanley Black & Decker told FOX Business, «We endeavored to make Craftsman mechanics tools in a new and innovative way. The events of Covid and supply chain challenges, coupled with technology that did not meet our